The A Team may be heading back to television.
Rights holder 20th Century Fox Television is teaming up with Gang Related creator Chris Morgan and Sleepy Hollow’s Albert Kim to develop a reboot of Stephen J. Cannell’s classic 1980s procedural The A Team, TVWise has confirmed.
The A Team originally aired five seasons on NBC between 1983 & 1987 and told the story of four special forces operators who, after being framed and court martialled for a crime they did not commit, escape from military custody and become “soldiers of fortune. It starred George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz and Mr. T
This reboot, which was first reported by Deadline, is being described as a “contemporary take” which will largely follow the storyline of the original, with a key difference being a diverse cast including both male and female leads (as opposed to the male dominated original). It will also be largely episodic with The A Team solving cases week-to-week, whilst also looking to clear the names by identifying the conspirators who set them up.
Sleepy Hollow and Nikita scribe Albert Kim is penning the script for the reboot and will also serve as an executive producer alongside Chris Morgan and Stephen J. Cannell’s daughter Tawnia McKiernan. At present there is no network attached and 20th Century Fox Television is expected to begin shopping the reboot, which is envisioned as a broadcast series, shortly.
This is the second time that Fox has attempted a reboot of The A Team, after going down the feature film route in 2010. That film, starring Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, Quinton Jackson and Sharlto Copley, was envisioned as the first in a potential series but after it only did OK at the box office the studio (20th Century Fox) eventually shelved plans to produce a sequel.
It;s also worth noting that, despite the current trend towards rebooting and/reviving olds shows and established properties over the last couple of development cycles, launching a truly successful reboot is a difficult needle to thread. For every one success, such as CBS’ Hawaii Five-0, there are dozens that never get off the drawing board or are cancelled after one season (ABC’s Charlie’s Angels, USA’s Kojak, and NBC’s The Rockford Files in 2010).
